Profumo's Loyal Wife Valerie Dies - Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland) | HighBeam Research APA "Profumo's Loyal Wife Valerie Dies." Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland). MGN Ltd. 1998. Retrieved January 19, 2017 from HighBeam Research: Please use HighBeam citations as a starting point only. Not all required citation information is available for every article, and citation requirements change over time. Profumo's Loyal Wife Valerie Dies Browse back issues of this publication by date November 15, 1998 | Copyright Copyright MGN Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to Customer Service . Create a link to this page Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog: <a href="" title="Profumo's Loyal Wife Valerie Dies | HighBeam Research">Profumo's Loyal Wife Valerie Dies</a> THE wife of disgraced former War Minister John Profumo has died.

Film star Valerie Hobson, who stood by him after his affair with hooker Christine Keeler, died of a heart attack last Thursday, aged 81. She will be best remembered for her films Great Expectations (1946), playing Estella, and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Miss Hobson retained her maiden name after the episode which rocked the Conservative Government in 1963. It also led to film fame for Profumo in the 1989 movie Scandal, about his fling with Keeler, who was also involved with a KGB spy. He was forced to quit the Cabinet after admitting that he had lied to Parliament over the affair. … Daily Mail (London); July 19, 2000 434 words Byline: NIGEL DEMPSTER THERE is a new spring in the step of former Conservative War Minister John Profumo, whose wife of 44 years, the actress Valerie Hobson, died 20 months ago.

He is to be found occasionally dating the divorcee Thelma King-Fretts, former wife of my old school friend Lt-Col Paddy… Daily Mail (London); July 19, 2000 By Dempster, Nigel; 446 words Byline: Nigel Dempster n THERE is a new spring in the step of former Conservative War Minister John Profumo, whose wife of 44 years, the actress Valerie Hobson, died 20 months ago. He is to be found occasionally dating the divorcee Thelma King-Fretts, former wife of my old school friend Lt-Col… Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India); March 10, 2006 382 words London, March 10 -- John Profumo, who was at the centre of a political scandal in the 1960s due to his affair with call girl Christine Keeler, died here at the age of 91.

He died peacefully at about midnight Thursday surrounded by his family, a spokesman for London's Chelsea and Westminster… The Herald; January 24, 2003 By BRIAN PENDREIGH; 570 words Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan came from a distinguished line of war heroes and politicians - his grandfather won the Victoria Cross and there is a statue of his great-grandfather in Trafalgar Square. It was thought he would follow in the family tradition. Havelock-Allan did serve with distinction… Birmingham Evening Mail (England); November 14, 1998 597 words VALERIE Hobson, the film star wife of disgraced former War Minister John Profumo, has died aged 81 from a heart attack, it was announced today. Miss Hobson, who stood by her husband after his resignation from the Conservative government in 1963 over his infamous affair with prostitute Christine… John Profumo | Politics | The Guardian Conservatives John Profumo Andrew Roth, who broke the story about Britain's most sensational political sex scandal, remembers the life of John Profumo John Profumo.

Photograph: Jimmy Sime/Getty Images Friday 10 March 2006 12.23 EST First published on Friday 10 March 2006 12.23 EST Share on Messenger Close John Profumo , the 5th Baron Profumo of Italy, who has died aged 91, lived many lives, in reality and in fiction. In the reality of the early 1960s, he was the wealthy playboy-dilettante secretary of state for war who almost destroyed Harold Macmillan's Conservative government by the discovery of his dalliance with the dancer and call-girl Christine Keeler, who was also said to be sleeping with the Soviet naval attaché Evegeny Ivanov. The reality that followed included four decades of work at Toynbee Hall in the east end of London. But in 1963, having lied about his dalliance with Keeler, and having been whitewashed by his Conservative colleagues, under pressure from his wife, the film star Valerie Hobson (obituary November 16 1998), he confessed the truth.

In June 1963 he resigned as secretary of state, from the privy council and as MP for Stratford-upon-Avon. Then came the work at Toynbee Hall, receiving a CBE for this from Harold Wilson in 1975 and becoming its chairman from 1982-85 and then its president. From 1975 he was also a director of his family's firm, Provident Life. But the overt sign of his full public redemption in the eyes of the establishment came in 1995 when he was seated on the Queen's right at the top table of the dinner celebrating the 70th birthday of Margaret Thatcher. "No one judges Jack Profumo more harshly than he does himself," his friend, the late Jim Thomson, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, once said. "He says he has never known a day since it happened when he has not felt real shame". Unfortunately for Profumo, in his quiet pursuit of personal redemption, he could not escape the public purgatory imposed by his 1963 image as an errant playboy-politician.

This was featured in TV documentaries, a half-fictional film, Scandal (1989), and the ghosted autobiographies of Christine Keeler, the lissom young woman whose naked form he chased around the pool at Cliveden, the Buckinghamshire stately home, with its then owner Lord ("Bill") Astor. Keeler was to constantly relive her ever-changing four months in 1962 with Profumo. In a 2001 version, based on 1,000 pages of released CIA fantasies, Stephen Ward, the tragic osteopath-artist-voyeur who introduced Keeler to Profumo, became a "Soviet" spy along with Sir Roger Hollis, the head of MI6. After 37 years, Keeler also alleged that she had become pregnant by Profumo and procured an abortion. The book and an accompanying TV programme would not have made it easier for an 85-year old to sleep three years after the death of his supportive wife. It was easier to fictionalise the events because Lord Denning's official 1963 inquiry into what became known as the Profumo Affair had been largely a whitewash.

And when the last British documents were supposed to be released in January 1994, a number of aspects were left obscure, including MI5's attempt to "turn" Evegeny Ivanov with the help of Dr Ward. Profumo always refused to talk because, in the words of his solicitor, Lord Goodman, "it caused him terrible pain". Seldom can anyone have paid more for longer for the sins of having been a playboy. As such, he had aroused the ire of my friend the late Captain Henry (Bob) Kerby, the very rightwing Tory MP for Arundel and Shoreham. A former MI6 man who had risked his life behind Nazi lines in wartime Europe, Kerby considered himself an outsider in the Conservative party and resented the privileges provided to the insiders in what he called the "kissing ring" - the rich and privileged Tories who attended the same schools and universities. Profumo very much fitted Kerby's picture of a member of that ring. Profumo was the eldest son of Baron Albert Profumo and was born into a family that then controlled Provident Life. He was educated at Harrow school and Brasenose College, Oxford.

From 1939 he served in the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, was mentioned in dispatches and awarded a military OBE in 1944. By the war's end in 1945 he was a brigadier and chief of staff to the British mission in Tokyo. But Profumo was the focus of antipathy for old sweats such as Kerby and the Labour MP Lieutenant-Colonel George Wigg. They resented the fact that, as a 25-year-old in 1940, he had become MP for Kettering (he lost in the seat in the 1945 Labour landslide) and having been MP for Stratford-upon-Avon from 1950, that such a "playboy" should become secretary of state for war in 1960. This was after junior posts in transport (1952-57), the colonial department ((1957-58) and the foreign office (1958-60).

Although MI5 had known about Profumo's dalliance with Keeler for many months, the first politician to learn about it was John Lewis, the former Labour MP for Bolton, who mistakenly thought Stephen Ward had seduced his wife. In January 1963, he informed George Wigg, Harold Wilson's intelligence chief, that Ward's protégé Christine Keeler, previously the girlfriend of property speculator Peter Rachman, had had a four-month affair with Profumo after a brief fling with the Soviet naval attache Evegeny Ivanov. In February 1963, Macmillan's private secretary, John Wyndham, later Lord Egremont, was told about the Profumo-Keeler relationship. About then, Bob Kerby passed on to me a copy of an affectionate note Profumo had sent Keeler that she was unsuccessfully trying to sell in Fleet Street, where its content was widely known. Editors, two of whose journalists had been jailed at the time of the scandal concerning the Soviet spy John Vassall, were reluctant to cross the Macmillan government again. I started checking the background of the Profumo-Keeler letter.

A press gallery colleague working for Tass, the Soviet news agency, confirmed that Ivanov had formed connections in Tory circles. Then suddenly, I had to use the material in my newsletter Westminster Confidential because my other potential lead - the plan of then chancellor of the exchequer, Reginald Maudling, to float the pound - had been aborted. So, in March 1963, I printed the Profumo letter in Westminster Confidential. All hell broke lose and my mail stopped coming. After Bob Kerby showed my newsletter to the Conservative chief whip, Sir Martin Redmayne, his face becoming even redder than usual and he rushed it to Harold Macmillan, demanding I be deprived of my lobby privileges. Sitting in the press gallery I heard a rattled Macmillan attack me. Then I heard Profumo, flanked by Macmillan and the leader of the commons Iain Macleod, threaten the likes of me with a libel action after reading out a whitewash concocted overnight by Redmayne, the solicitor general, the attorney general, and information minister William Deedes - a meeting from which the stiff necked home secretary Henry Brooke was excluded.

Profumo insisted: "There was no impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler." It was after this that the outspoken Tory MP Nigel Birch voiced all cynics' suspicions by saying: "What are whores about?" Stephen Ward, fearing police prosecution as a pimp, informed Macmillan, through his principal private secretary Tim Bligh, about a series of love letters Profumo had sent Keeler. But the PM preferred to believe Profumo's word "as a gentleman". Under the threat of an investigation by the lord chancellor, Lord Dilhorne, Profumo blurted out the truth to his wife Valerie over lunch in Venice. "Oh darling," she said, "we must go home as soon as we can and face up to it". In Macmillan's absence in Scotland, Profumo confessed his four months of lies to Tim Bligh and, in a letter to Macmillan, resigned from all his offices. From then on, the long-restrained press had a field day, speculating that Keeler had been programmed to ask Profumo about the rearmament of West Germany, although nobody believed she had the intelligence to ask the question, or understand the answers.

Subsequent preparations for the trial of Stephen Ward caused a panic in the establishment. Many of its members, whom he had treated for bad backs, sketched for the Daily Telegraph and Illustrated London News or matched with his young women of the demi-monde, were quaking in their hand-turned shoes. They phoned Ward, telling him to keep quiet about them, leave the country or cut his throat. When he knew he would be found guilty he asked Stephen Pound to buy him enough sedatives to commit suicide, as desired by his establishment "friends". The blow to the Macmillan government was enormous. Profumo's confession and the Ward trial broke open the shell of the old establishment, exposing its immorality and incompetence. Macmillan wanted to eject Profumo from the privy council to show how forcefully, if belatedly, he could deal with lying sexual transgressors. Documents released 40 years later disclosed that Profumo's friend, the Queen, intervened to allow the disgraced politician to resign. Macmillan was transformed overnight from "Supermac" into a doddering old Edwardian twit. He confessed the sense of "personal strain" had been unprecedented.

In September, having learned he had prostate cancer, Macmillan resigned his office. Within a year, Profumo began reconstructing his life. Introduced to Toynbee Hall by Stella, the Marchioness of Reading, he began washing dishes in its kitchen, moving on to the meths drinkers' club. He then tackled fund-raising to keep the settlement afloat. As his wife said: "it isn't what happens to a man, it's what he does with it that matters". An epitaph of a different sort was provided in May 2003 by Labour MP Frank Field about the first vote Profumo cast as the newly elected MP for Kettering. This was the vote that helped bring down the Chamberlain government and install Winston Chuchill as war leader. As "the last surviving Tory MP to have voted against the Government in that fateful division on May 8 1940, we publicly salute the gallant and honourable gentleman to whom this country owes a huge debt of gratitude". He leaves a son, David. John Dennis Profumo, Baron Albert Profumo, politician and social worker, born January 30 1915; died March 9 2006.

John Profumo - The Full Wiki The Full Wiki More info on John Profumo Wikis Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics Profumo Affair Did you know ... More interesting facts on John Profumo Include this on your site/blog: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Profumo 27 July 1960 – 5 June 1963 Monarch Brasenose College, Oxford Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo CBE (30 January 1915 – 9 March 2006), informally known as Jack Profumo, was a British politician . His title, which he did not use, was Sardinian . Although Profumo held an increasingly responsible series of political posts in the 1950s, he is best known today for his involvement in a 1963 scandal involving a prostitute.

The scandal, now known as the Profumo Affair , led to Profumo's resignation and withdrawal from politics, and it may have helped to topple the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan . After his resignation, Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall , a charity based in the East End of London , and continued to work there for the rest of his life. [1] Eventually, Profumo volunteered as the charity's chief fundraiser. These charitable activities helped to restore the fallen politician's reputation; he was awarded a CBE in 1975, and in 1995 was invited to Margaret Thatcher 's 70th birthday dinner. He was a member of Boodle's club in St James's, London from 1969 until his death. Contents 7 External links Early life and career Profumo was born in Kensington , London [2] , the son of Albert Profumo , 4th Baron Profumo, a diplomat and barrister of Italian origin, who died in 1940.

He was educated at Harrow School and Brasenose College , Oxford , where he took his degree in agriculture and political economy and was a member of the Bullingdon Club . In 1939 he joined the British Army ( Northamptonshire Yeomanry ), and served in North Africa (where he was mentioned in despatches ), landed in Normandy on D-Day and was engaged in the subsequent fierce fighting to secure that region of France. His final rank in the British Army was brigadier. He was awarded an OBE (military) for his service on Field Marshal Harold Alexander 's staff commanding the 15th Army Group in Italy towards the end of the war. Political career In 1940, while still serving in the army, Profumo was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative at a by-election on 3 March in the Kettering constituency , Northamptonshire . Shortly afterwards he voted against the Chamberlain government in the debate following the British defeat at Narvik in Norway. (This defiance on Profumo's part enraged the Government Whip, David Margesson , who wrote to him a letter containing the following: 'I can tell you this, you utterly contemptible little shit.

On every morning that you wake up for the rest of your life you will be ashamed of what you did last night.') Profumo was the youngest MP at that time, and by the time of his death he was last surviving member of the 1940 House of Commons. At the 1945 election Profumo was defeated at Kettering by a Labour candidate, Dick Mitchison . Later in 1945 he was chief of staff to the British Mission to Japan. In 1950 he left the army and at the general election in February 1950 he was elected for Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire , a safe Conservative seat. Profumo was a well-connected politician with a good war record, and (despite Margesson's above-mentioned outburst) was highly regarded in the Conservative party. These qualities helped him to rise steadily through the ranks of the Conservative government that was elected in 1951.

He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in November 1952, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in November 1953, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in January 1957, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in November 1958, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1959. In 1954 he married the actress Valerie Hobson . In July 1960, Profumo was appointed a Secretary of State for War , ( outside of the cabinet) and a member of the Privy Council . The "Profumo Affair" Main article: Profumo Affair In July 1961, at a party at Cliveden , home of Viscount Astor , Profumo met Christine Keeler , a model with whom he began a sexual relationship. Profumo ended it after only a few weeks but rumours about the affair began to circulate. Since Keeler also had sexual relations with Yevgeny Ivanov , the senior naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy, the "Profumo Affair" took on a national security dimension.

In December 1962, a shooting incident in London involving two other men who were involved with Keeler led the press to investigate Ms Keeler, and reporters soon learned of her affairs with Profumo and Ivanov. But the British tradition of respecting the private lives of British politicians was maintained until March 1963, when the Labour MP George Wigg , claiming to be motivated by the national security aspects of the case, referred in the House of Commons (i.e. under immunity from any possible legal action ) to rumours that Profumo was having an affair with Keeler. Profumo then made a personal statement in which he admitted he knew Keeler but denied there was any "impropriety" in their relationship. Profumo's statement did not prevent newspapers publishing stories about Keeler, and it soon became apparent to Macmillan that his position was untenable. On 5 June 1963 Profumo was forced to admit that he had lied to the House, an unforgivable offence in British politics. He resigned from office, from the House and from the Privy Council [3] . Before making his public confession Profumo confessed the affair to his wife, who stood by him.

It was never shown that his relationship with Keeler had led to any breach of national security. The scandal rocked the Conservative government, and was generally held to have been among the causes of its defeat by Labour at the 1964 election . Profumo maintained complete public silence about the matter for the rest of his life, even when the 1989 film Scandal and the publication of Keeler's memoirs revived public interest in the affair. Later life Shortly after his resignation Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall , a charity based in the East End of London , and continued to work there for the rest of his life. [1] . He "had to be persuaded to lay down his mop and lend a hand running the place", eventually becoming Toynbee Hall's chief fundraiser, and used his political skills and contacts to raise large sums of money. All this work was done as a volunteer, since Profumo was able to live on his inherited wealth. His wife also devoted herself to charity until her death in 1998. In the eyes of most commentators, Profumo's charity work redeemed his reputation.

The social reform campaigner Lord Longford said he "felt more admiration [for Profumo] than [for] all the men I've known in my lifetime".[citation needed] Profumo was awarded a CBE in 1975, which he received at a Buckingham Palace ceremony from Queen Elizabeth II , signalling his return to respectability. In 1995, former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher invited him to her 70th birthday dinner, where he sat next to the Queen. He appeared only occasionally in public, particularly in his last years when he used a wheelchair. His last appearance was at the memorial service for Sir Edward Heath on 8 November 2005. In 2003, Profumo received the prestigious Beacon Fellowship Prize for his work at Toynbee Hall in countering social deprivation and exclusion. Death and tributes On 7 March 2006, Profumo suffered a severe stroke and was admitted to London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital . He died two days later surrounded by his family.

In the immediate aftermath of his death, most commentators said that he should be remembered as much for his contribution to society after his fall from political grace as for the scandal of 1963 which caused that fall. References ^ a b The Economist : The Profumo affair in context ^ GRO Register of Births: MAR 1915 1a 177 John D. Profumo, mmn = Walker ^ Staff reporter (1997). "Queen Accepts Aitken's Resignation" . British Broadcasting Corporation. . Retrieved 12 February 2008.

"Two former disgraced ministers, John Profumo and John Stonehouse, have also resigned from the Council..." External links Henley on Thames News | Profumo wife’s tale shackled by history Profumo wife’s tale shackled by history Published 13/07/15 Tweet “SEXUAL intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three / (which was rather late for me) / Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban / And the Beatles’ first LP.” Though Larkin doesn’t say so, 1963 was also the year of the Profumo affair, which led to the resignation of the then secretary of state for war. The scandal, which centred on John Profumo’s affair with the 19-year-old Christine Keeler, was exacerbated by the fact that she was also sleeping with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Russian naval attaché. At the height of the Cold War. The newspapers tore into the story. For months flashbulbs popped whenever Profumo and his wife, the former film star Valerie Hobson, set foot outside. “Is this what they mean by the white heat of technology?” she asks at one point.

It was only when the disgraced former minister began cleaning toilets at East End charity Toynbee Hall that his long, slow, public rehabilitation could begin. Which left his wife where? At home, mostly, with a packet of cigarettes and her journal for company. After years of maintaining a diplomatic silence in real life, the selling point of Valerie Hobson is that, courtesy of playwright Max Tiarks and West End luminary Liz Robertson, the wronged wife at last gets to have her say. Your reviewer is a big fan of one-character plays. One of the best things I’ve ever seen in the theatre was a heart-stopping production of Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine. But Russell wasn’t shackled by history and biography. His leading lady could say what she liked, how she liked. Liz Robertson’s performance at the Kenton could not be faulted. She is a star. Nor, truthfully, could the material — provided you were a Profumo aficionado. As theatre, though, I’m sorry to say Valerie Hobson felt a little too measured. Even a bit lacking in story. Valerie has a go at Keeler, sure, but ends up blaming herself for all manner of things to do with her marriage.

Perhaps she’s right to — but her words to that effect didn’t add up to much in the way of a dramatic payoff. Review: Matthew Wilson John Profumo : definition of John Profumo and synonyms of John Profumo (English) Brasenose College, Oxford Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo CBE ( / p r ə ˈ f juː m oʊ / prə-FEW-moh ; 30 January 1915 – 9 March 2006), informally known as Jack Profumo, was a British politician . His title, 5th Baron, which he did not use, was Italian . Although Profumo held an increasingly responsible series of political posts in the 1950s, he is best known today for his involvement in a 1963 scandal involving a prostitute. The scandal, now known as the Profumo Affair , led to Profumo's resignation and withdrawal from politics, and it may have helped to topple the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan .

After his resignation, Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall , a charity based in the East End of London , and continued to work there for the rest of his life. [1] Eventually, Profumo volunteered as the charity's chief fundraiser. These charitable activities helped to restore the fallen politician's reputation; he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1975, and in 1995 was invited to Margaret Thatcher 's 70th birthday dinner. He was a member of Boodle's club in St James's, London from 1969 until his death. Contents 7 External links Early life and career Profumo was born in Kensington , London, [2] the son of Albert Profumo , 4th Baron Profumo, a diplomat and barrister of Italian origin, who died in 1940. He was educated at Harrow School and Brasenose College, Oxford , where he read law and was a member of the Bullingdon Club .

On 1 July 1939, he was commissioned into the Royal Armoured Corps as a Second Lieutenant , [3] service number 92407. [4] He had previously been a member of the Officer Training Corps and a Cadet Sergeant while at Harrow. [3] He served in North Africa with the Northamptonshire Yeomanry as a Captain ( Acting Major ), where he was mentioned in despatches . [4] He landed in Normandy on D-Day and was engaged in the subsequent fierce fighting to secure that region of France. His final rank in the British Army was Brigadier . Major (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel ) Profumo was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) (military) "in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Italy", on 21 December 1944. [5] Specifically it was for his service on Field Marshal Harold Alexander 's staff commanding the 15th Army Group . In November 1947, Acting Colonel Profumo was awarded the Bronze Star Medal by the United States of America "in recognition of distinguished services in the cause of the Allies".

[6] Political career In 1940, while still serving in the army, Profumo was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Kettering constituency , Northamptonshire at a by-election on 3 March . [7] Shortly afterwards he voted against the Chamberlain government in the debate following the British defeat at Narvik in Norway. (This defiance on Profumo's part enraged the Government Whip, David Margesson , who wrote to him a letter containing the following: 'I can tell you this, you utterly contemptible little shit. On every morning that you wake up for the rest of your life you will be ashamed of what you did last night.') Profumo was the youngest MP at that time, and by the time of his death he was last surviving member of the 1940 House of Commons. At the 1945 election Profumo was defeated at Kettering by a Labour candidate, Dick Mitchison . Later in 1945 he was chief of staff to the British Mission to Japan.

In 1950 he left the army and at the general election in February 1950 he was elected for Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire , a safe Conservative seat. Profumo was a well-connected politician with a good war record, and (despite Margesson's above-mentioned outburst) was highly regarded in the Conservative party. These qualities helped him to rise steadily through the ranks of the Conservative government that was elected in 1951. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in November 1952, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in November 1953, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in January 1957, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in November 1958, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1959. In 1954 he married the actress Valerie Hobson . In July 1960, Profumo was appointed a Secretary of State for War , (outside of the cabinet) and a member of the Privy Council .

The Profumo Affair Main article: Profumo Affair In July 1961, at a party at Cliveden , home of Viscount Astor , Profumo met Christine Keeler , a model with whom he began a sexual relationship. Profumo ended it after only a few weeks but rumours about the affair began to circulate. Since Keeler also had sexual relations with Yevgeni Ivanov , the senior naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy, the Profumo Affair took on a national security dimension. In December 1962, a shooting incident in London involving two other men who were involved with Keeler led the press to investigate Ms Keeler, and reporters soon learned of her affairs with Profumo and Ivanov. But the British tradition of respecting the private lives of British politicians was maintained until March 1963, when the Labour MP George Wigg , claiming to be motivated by the national security aspects of the case, taking advantage of Parliamentary Privilege , referred in the House of Commons (under immunity from any possible legal action ) to rumours that Profumo was having an affair with Keeler.

Profumo then made a personal statement in which he admitted he knew Keeler but denied there was any "impropriety" in their relationship. Profumo's statement did not prevent newspapers publishing stories about Keeler, and it soon became apparent to Macmillan that his position was untenable. On 5 June 1963, Profumo was forced to admit that he had lied to the House, an unforgivable offence in British politics. He resigned from office, from the House and from the Privy Council. [8] Before making his public confession Profumo confessed the affair to his wife, who stood by him. It was never shown that his relationship with Keeler had led to any breach of national security. [9] The scandal rocked the Conservative government, and was generally held to have been among the causes of its defeat by Labour at the 1964 election . Macmillan had already gone by then, having resigned in October 1963 to be succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home .

The Conservative Party had, however, been suffering a decline in popularity for some time before the Profumo Affair, which could be traced back to the failed application to join the European common market and the Night of the Long Knives in July 1962, which had seen Macmillan dismiss seven members of his cabinet in an attempt to restore the government's popularity. Macmillan's style of politics and that of Douglas-Home had also been regarded as old-fashioned in comparison with that of Labour's Harold Wilson , who became leader of the opposition in early 1963 following the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell . [10] Profumo maintained complete public silence about the matter for the rest of his life, even when the 1989 film Scandal and the publication of Keeler's memoirs revived public interest in the affair. [9] [11] [12] "The whole of time would not be long enough to tell you of my joy in being married to you. Joy is not measured just by lovely things: the birth of babies, the song of birds heard together, the fun of holidays - the lyrical-love of lying with you.

Joy is to be found, too, in the relief after pain shared, in the good news following bad, in the knowledge of greater closeness after disaster." (from the 10th wedding anniversary letter of Valerie to John Profumo, 1965) Later life Shortly after his resignation Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall , a charity based in the East End of London , and continued to work there for the rest of his life. [1] Peter Hitchens has written that Profumo "vanished into London's East End for 40 years, doing quiet good works". [13] Profumo "had to be persuaded to lay down his mop and lend a hand running the place", eventually becoming Toynbee Hall's chief fundraiser, and used his political skills and contacts to raise large sums of money. All this work was done as a volunteer, since Profumo was able to live on his inherited wealth. His wife, the actress Valerie Hobson , also devoted herself to charity until her death in 1998. In the eyes of most commentators, Profumo's charity work redeemed his reputation.

The social reform campaigner Lord Longford said he "felt more admiration [for Profumo] than [for] all the men I've known in my lifetime".[ citation needed ] Profumo was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1975, and received the honour at a Buckingham Palace ceremony from Queen Elizabeth II , signalling his return to respectability. In 1995, former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher invited him to her 70th birthday dinner, where he sat next to the Queen. He appeared only occasionally in public, particularly in his last years when he used a wheelchair. His last appearance was at the memorial service for Sir Edward Heath on 8 November 2005. Death and tributes On 7 March 2006, Profumo suffered a severe stroke and was admitted to London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital . He died two days later surrounded by his family. He was 91 years old. In the immediate aftermath of his death, most commentators said that he should be remembered as much for his contribution to society after his fall from political grace as for the scandal of 1963 which caused that fall.

References Mark Sanford And Honor | The American Conservative Mark Sanford And Honor — Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) May 8, 2013 Me too. Me too. John Profumo was the disgraced British cabinet minister who left public life humiliated by a famous sex scandal, and spent the rest of his life redeeming himself through selfless service to the poor. It’s worth quoting his 2006 obituary from The Telegraph in light of Mark Sanford’s victory last night in South Carolina: Profumo’s story is of a man who made one terrible mistake but sought his own redemption in a way which has no precedent in public life either before or since. No one in public life ever did more to atone for his sins; no one behaved with more silent dignity as his name was repeatedly dragged through the mud; and few ended their lives as loved and revered by those who knew him. Profumo’s transgression came when the Tories had been in power for 11 years.

He was then a promising Secretary of State for War, married to the actress Valerie Hobson, star of the film Kind Hearts and Coronets and one of Britain’s leading actresses of stage and screen in the 1940s and 1950s. On June 5 1963 he resigned after admitting that he had lied to Parliament about his relationship with Christine Keeler, a call-girl who had been – separately – seeing the Russian naval attaché and spy, Yevgeny Ivanov. The Macmillan government never recovered from the scandal and, for that and other reasons, lost the General Election the following year. Filled with remorse, Profumo never sought to justify himself or seek public sympathy. Instead, for the next four decades he devoted himself to Toynbee Hall, a charitable settlement at Spitalfields in the East End of London. He began by washing dishes, helping with the playgroup and collecting rents. Later he served with the charity’s council, eventually becoming its chairman and then president – the only other person to have held that office was Clement Attlee.

From his tiny office at Toynbee Hall, Profumo kept up a ceaseless flow of letters to anyone who might be able to speak, give money or do anything to assist the charity in its work of helping the poor and down-and-outs in the East End. Largely through his efforts, Toynbee Hall became a national institution. That’s not how it is with Sanford, a class act who reportedly asked his former wife, on whom he cheated with his Argentine mistress, to run his campaign (she declined). From CNN’s report from Sanford’s victory party: “I want to acknowledge a God not just of second chances but third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth chances, because that is the reality of our shared humanity,” Sanford said at his victory celebration after defeating his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch. “I am one imperfect man saved by God’s grace.” Dude, God forgives him, why can’t you? To paraphrase Léon Bloy, at this point, the tragedy of Mark Sanford’s life is not to have been John Profumo.

Question: Who is the ex-actress wife of disgraced former war minister John Profumo?
Answer: VALERIE HOBSON